If Alberta were to gain independence, it should take a closer look at the potential possibility of a future with the United States, says former Conservative MP Rob Anders. Four more former Conservative MPs are backing the province’s potential separation from Canada and one wants Albertans to consider closer ties with the United States, arguing that the province should pursue...
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she will be meeting with four Chinese companies that are considering building electric vehicles in Canada when she visits China this week in an effort to attract investment to this country’s auto sector. The four companies – BYD, Chery, Geely and Shanghai Launch Automotive Technology – have been examining possible investments in Canada, Ms. Joly...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Evian-les-Bains in France for the G7 summit, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced an agreement had been reached to end the conflict in Iran. Trump announced the deal Sunday, adding that he authorized an end to the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, but later said the strait wouldn’t open...
Prime Minister Mark Carney reads his briefing notes and is willing to engage and have a 'thoughtful conversation' with caucus members on any issue they like, says Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith.
The war was never popular with Canadians but the economic impacts are now driving a desire to see it come to an end. As rumours about potential resolution to the war that has been going on for more than three months, Canadians want to see a quick end to it. In our latest Spark Insights polling (June 7-12, 4462 adults...
The latest Federal Tracker from Liaison Strategies shows the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, holding a 9-point lead over Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. The Liberals stand at 41% among decided and leaning voters, followed by the Conservatives at 32%, the NDP at 14%, and the Bloc Québécois at 6%. The Green Party, People’s Party, and Other parties are...
The war was never popular with Canadians but the economic impacts are now driving a desire to see it come to an end. As rumours about potential resolution to the war that has been going on for more than three months, Canadians want to see a quick end to it. In our latest Spark Insights polling (June 7-12, 4462 adults...
The Conservative party wants you to picture lineups around the block for Canada’s overwhelmed food banks. To help, they’ve used AI to generate a false scene. Rather than appreciate the helpful visuals, we should make clear: This sucks.
How is Ottawa to manage the relationship with our closest neighbour and most important trading partner? There are essentially three options for dealing with the rogue president currently in the White House.
The federal government will introduce two major bills in the last days of the Parliamentary sitting, focusing on privacy and ensuring First Nations have access to clean drinking water. The Liberal government has given notice it will bring forward a long-promised update to Canada's private-sector privacy law. The bill is expected to include protections for children's data as well as...
Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller insists the federal government will not capitulate to the U.S. administration and back down on the legislation he says is aimed at protecting children from the potential harms of the internet. “Kids just aren’t on the bargaining table. Hard stop,” Miller told CTV Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday...
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon’s recent acknowledgment that new legislation may be needed to accelerate approvals for major projects is an admission of long-standing failure. Canada’s regulatory system for infrastructure and resource development has become slow, uncertain, and politicized. While Ottawa now speaks of one or two year approval windows and continues expanding entities like the Major Projects Office, deeper...
“Fake it ‘til you make it.” The motto that’s most popular among young entrepreneurs trying to bootstrap their way to success is also, apparently, the strategy being deployed by the Alberta government in its ongoing attempt to get a new oil pipeline to the West Coast. As Minister of Indigenous Relations Rajan Sawhney let slip a few days ago, her...
It's not even close. It's not even close to being close. We wait for them to make a move, do something, try to win the hearts and minds of the undecided, answer the actual questions on people's minds. Heaven knows the separatists have the attention of Canada now. Newshounds can tell you how every single day story-hungry editors want the...
In a world riven with strife, with democracy and dignity under daily assault in the United States by its president, and with global hegemons rejecting the sovereignty of nations, Canadians should take careful stock of what we have and who we are. Canada is blessed with vast geography, abundant natural resources and an educated and diverse population. We have the...
There are times when you feel the ground shift because something genuinely historic is underway. That was my reaction Monday morning watching Louise Arbour installed as Canada’s 31st Governor General. It was a defining, quintessentially Canadian experience, not just for the pageantry, the 21-gun salute, or the high ceremony of passing the torch. What made it remarkable was the passage...
The people leading Canada’s trade talks are not as worried as you might think about Donald Trump’s latest threats to end North American free trade. It was somewhat jarring, this week, to take in the calm demeanour projected by chief trade negotiator Janice Charette, at an automotive conference, and lead cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc, and ambassador Mark Wiseman at a...
It was a slow week on the separatism front, but then, at the last minute, Albertans got something new to be confused about. The government announced Friday it's creating a panel — because that's what it does — to assess the costs of separation. This was expected after Premier Danielle Smith went on about $400-billion costs, big prices for our...
Quebec’s federalists face a crucial and highly consequential choice ahead of the next provincial election, to be held Oct. 5. Faced with the prospect of a Parti Québécois (PQ) victory under the leadership of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, flanked by a nationalist Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) and a separatist Québec Solidaire, Quebec could soon be plunged into a third referendum on...
When I wrote about Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Anxious Generation” two years ago, I was struck by the thought experiment he uses as an opening. Imagine, he wrote, if a tech lord proposed sending your teenage daughter to join the first human settlement on Mars. She’s eager to go — all my friends will be there! — but it turns...
Poilievre needs more people to like the sound of his voice. To hear him say things that make them feel confident and hopeful, not depressed. To reveal some self-awareness.
This fall’s referendum on secession in Alberta – well, not on secession, but on whether to have a referendum on secession – promises another chance to observe a familiar phenomenon: federalists “fighting for Canada” on separatist terms. There has been no shortage of volunteers to play Captain Canada in the campaign to come, notably Danielle Smith, the Premier, and Pierre...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has confronted two critical but unrelated challenges with performative techniques that have been greeted with understandable skepticism by the two target audiences. In both cases — the need to build infrastructure to transport oil to tidewater and on to overseas markets and the failure to counter the worst antisemitism since the Second World War — Carney...
Pete Hoekstra is not quite in the super league of undiplomatic diplomats. Before he was British foreign minister, Boris Johnson once offended the entire nation of Papua New Guinea by linking it to cannibalism. But the current U.S. ambassador can claim the rare accomplishment of uniting Canadians coast to coast in their animosity toward him.
Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette has given her governing Quebec party a pulse with a mix of seriousness outside the province and calculated wedge politics at home.
The daily question period in the House of Commons generally subtracts from the sum of human knowledge, and Tuesday’s episode was an absolute belter in terms of confusing anyone watching. It kicked off with Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre calling the “phantom” high-speed railway between Quebec City and Toronto “a boondoggle.” This from the Conservative party that has called on the...
Even though they have a mammoth money lead on the Democrats, fundraisers for U.S. President Donald Trump never let up. Their solicitations come at a relentless pace, like corn being popped. I have a sense of it because I strangely got on the Republicans’ mailing list as a MAGA supporter and potential donor. My inbox is bombarded several times a...
At the Pride flag raising on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, local activists and onlookers mingled with staffers, MPs and senators in the hot sun while waiting for Prime Minister Mark Carney to arrive. A group of Conservative MPs were present, including out lesbian MP Melissa Lantsman, though none would dare be photographed on stage at the end of the event...
One of Ontario’s biggest and most reliable automakers is warning Canadians not to take its presence here for granted. “Companies don’t automatically keep building vehicles in the same country just because it’s always been that way,” Honda Canada president Dave Jamieson told an industry summit convened by the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association in Vaughan this week.
There is zero chance, absolutely none, that separatist leaders will kick Premier Danielle Smith out of office and take over the United Conservative Party. That's how they talk, of course. They're going after the premier because they don't like her referendum question and her embrace of federalism, Alberta style. In the last column, I tried to explain the movement against...
There’s a lineup of imperfect candidates who could make the case for Canada ahead of Alberta’s referendum-to-have-a-referendum on sovereignty in the fall. There’s Prime Minister Mark Carney, of course, the most prominent federalist in the country and one who happened to spend the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Alberta. But Mr. Carney is Albertan in the same way...
Today was the day when Donald Trump issued the inevitable pronouncement that he’d prefer not to renew the Canada-US-Mexico (CUSMA) agreement at all. While only time will tell how much of that statement was posturing, it raises the question of how Team Canada will approach this new phase in the evolution of the deal. This time last year, many observers...
The United States and Iran have reached an agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, offering relief to the global economy more than three months since fighting began. Details of the deal were not immediately available. Key mediator Pakistan said the signing will be Friday in Switzerland. Key issues like Iran’s nuclear program are expected to...
The man behind a billboard urging Albertans to “Choose Alberta” says the Town of Taber has ordered it to be removed, setting off a debate over political expression as the province heads towards an October vote on separation. Cory Morgan the organizer of Pathway to Independence, a registered third-party advertiser, said the town sent a letter to the billboard operator...
Parti Québécois leader raised questions on Friday over the Quebec Liberal Party's funding. The leader of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), Charles Milliard, is putting the leader of the Parti Québécois on notice over comments Paul St-Pierre Plamondon made linking the PLQ to organized crime on the last day of the legislature before the fall elections. On Friday, Plamondon used...
The United States will play a role in a new world order where no one institution or country will have all the answers, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday. "What one can't do at this point in a rapidly shifting world order is to rely on one set of institutions, one grouping, one country to provide the answers," he said...
86% give the government a passing grade; while 14% would mark it an F. Our latest Spark Advocacy nationwide polling wrapped up late this week, with a large sample of 4462 adults across Canada. Here’s what we find as Parliament gets ready to rise for the summer. Overall satisfaction with the “way in which the federal government is handling its...
The people of County Mayo, found on the west coast of Ireland, greeted Prime Minister Mark Carney with open arms on Sunday. Businesses hung Canadian flags outside their buildings, and groups of people held up signs on the side of the road as Carney made his way into town from the airport. Some restaurants even invented names for their food...
David Eby wants mandatory reporting for concerning AI chatbot interactions. B.C. Premier David Eby says the federal government's newly introduced online harms bill "is a miss" when it comes to addressing AI chatbots because it doesn't require tech companies to report users' concerning interactions to police. "These companies have to have a bright line test imposed on them by the...
A Senate bill originally introduced nearly four years ago is calling on the federal government to produce a framework for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder emphasizing improved and early diagnosis. This can be the difference between “night and day” for families, says one former Senator with lived experience. A last-minute change in the Senate Social Affairs Committee schedule means that former...
Ontario's premier appears to be dropping his more aggressive anti-Trump rhetoric ahead of CUSMA talks. Doug Ford appears to be throttling back on aggressive anti-Trump rhetoric with key trade talks looming with the United States, stepping up a charm offensive aimed at politicians and lobby groups in the mercurial president’s orbit. Earlier this week, Ford wrapped the first of three...
The people of County Mayo, found on the west coast of Ireland, greeted Prime Minister Mark Carney with open arms on Sunday. Businesses hung Canadian flags outside their buildings, and groups of people held up signs on the side of the road as Carney made his way into town from the airport. Carney is continuing his Irish pilgrimage, visiting his...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the "strands" of a new world order could be woven at the G7 summit next week. Carney made the remarks during a discussion at Trinity College Dublin while on a six-day trip to Europe. In January, the prime minister delivered a speech in Davos calling on middle powers to band together in the face of...
Canada and Ireland have agreed to work together on key issues like artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and food security, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday. During a press conference with Ireland's head of government Micheal Martin, Carney said his visit was about "strengthening a relationship that is already flourishing." He said the countries have complementary strategies in artificial intelligence...
Lots of good talk on Good Talk this week, starting with Chantal and Bruce on Mark Carney's trip to Paris today and his talks with Emmanuel Macron. France is hosting the G7 next week, but for many, it's really a G6 with Donald Trump's America, no friend of the group. That and CUSMA and social media bans top the discussion...
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been leading the charge in the Trump administration on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, which has seen its opening delayed at the request of the United States, a White House official said Friday. Speaking on background, the administration official said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke with the White House recently about the bridge but...
With a $75-million investment to Canadian Blood Services to increase domestic blood and plasma supplies for health emergencies, the federal Liberals have provided a first look at their plans to bolster Canada’s medical countermeasures, which were classified as a “sovereign capability” in the Defence Industrial Strategy released earlier this year. But two other life sciences experts say the strategy’s health...
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney and MPs from other political parties came together to raise the Pride flag on Parliament Hill. But an advocacy group that helps LGBTQ refugees come to Canada and the U.S says the federal government's new border law is putting people at risk of being sent back to countries where they face persecution. Devon...
Eleanor Olszewski jokes that, like most good Albertans, she originally comes from Saskatchewan. Born in Swift Current, Sask., Olszewski called the small city home for only a couple of years. Her family moved to Medicine Hat, Alta. where she was raised, before leaving for Edmonton to attend university, achieving degrees first in pharmacy and then later law, eventually settling down...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Ireland where he will drum up business and investment with European peers and visit his ancestors' home on the Emerald Isle. Carney arrived in Dublin Saturday morning, where he will meet with Micheál Martin, Ireland's head of government, and attend a welcoming ceremony at Dublin Castle. The leaders are set to hold a joint...
When Mark Carney arrived in Davos in January and warned that “middle powers” risked ending up “on the menu” of the “hegemons,” he sounded like a Canadian prime minister on the hunt for a foreign policy.
The concept of Canadian Arctic sovereignty is rapidly becoming outdated as much of the world eyes the region as part of an intense global competition that will blur traditional lines and beliefs, a conference on Canada-U.S. relations was told this week. The wakeup call came from Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the former president of Iceland and now the chair of Arctic...
The federal government tabled a bill Friday to change the way Canada bars imports of products made with forced labour following an American tariff threat. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand was in Paris with Prime Minister Mark Carney as the legislation was tabled by her parliamentary secretary, Rob Oliphant. "This will be a made-in-Canada solution to an international problem," he...
Independent grocers are welcoming the federal government's national food security strategy, aimed at boosting competition among grocers, growing local produce year-round and improving consumer affordability.
Canada and France will deepen their defence and industrial co-operation through a new general security of information agreement, Prime Minister Mark Carney said in Paris on Friday. Carney made the announcement in a joint statement alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, ahead of a bilateral meeting between the two at the Palais de l’Elysée. “Businesses in both of our countries are...
ATB report points to tariffs, Iran war and separatism as possible risks. Alberta’s economy is staying the course despite uncertain tariff policies from the United States and the impact of the U.S and Israel-Iran war on global oil supply, according to a new report released Thursday. “Moving fast in the slow lane: Alberta’s economy in 2026 and 2027” is the...
German defence minister, army chief point to a narrow timeline. They're not alone. Boris Pistorius doesn't look like a man prone to alarmism. Germany's defence minister is frank and plain-spoken, but also deliberate with his words and intention. When he talks about Russia, the future of the West and the possibility of another European war, the message however becomes stark...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has landed in Paris, where he is set to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the G7 summit next week. A government official briefing reporters before the trip framed the meeting as Canada passing the G7 presidency baton to France and said the leaders likely will discuss how to advance a strategic partnership between...
Finance Minister Francois-Phillippe Champagne says he "followed all the rules" to make sure he wasn't in a conflict of interest related to the Alto high-speed rail project. The minister testified at the parliamentary ethics committee Thursday after months of scrutiny from the federal Conservatives over his involvement in the proposed $90-billion high-speed rail project between Toronto and Quebec City. Champagne...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the opening of the Gordie Howe International Bridge was delayed at the request of the United States -- but the issue is separate from negotiations on a critical continental trade pact. "At the request of the United States, we agreed to delay the opening and take the necessary time to resolve outstanding issues, a few...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump marked his 80th birthday on Sunday by hailing an initial agreement to end the war in Iran and staging a once unfathomable cage-fighting show on the White House's storied South Lawn.
Many Asian American and Pacific Islander adults have experienced or witnessed some degree of upheaval because of the Trump administration's heightened immigration policies, a new AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll finds, while most say the U.S. is no longer the land of opportunity for immigrants.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump celebrates turning 80 on Sunday with a showstopping birthday spectacle that once would have seemed unfathomable: a cage-fighting show on the storied South Lawn of the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith came to the Senate at a very different moment for Democrats.
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly says she will be meeting with four Chinese companies that are considering building electric vehicles in Canada when she visits China this week in an effort to attract investment to this country’s auto sector. The four companies – BYD, Chery, Geely and Shanghai Launch Automotive Technology – have been examining possible investments in Canada, Ms. Joly...
The United States and Iran have reached an agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, offering relief to the global economy more than three months since fighting began. Details of the deal were not immediately available. Key mediator Pakistan said the signing will be Friday in Switzerland. Key issues like Iran’s nuclear program are expected to...
The United States will play a role in a new world order where no one institution or country will have all the answers, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday. "What one can't do at this point in a rapidly shifting world order is to rely on one set of institutions, one grouping, one country to provide the answers," he said...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says the "strands" of a new world order could be woven at the G7 summit next week. Carney made the remarks during a discussion at Trinity College Dublin while on a six-day trip to Europe. In January, the prime minister delivered a speech in Davos calling on middle powers to band together in the face of...
Canada and Ireland have agreed to work together on key issues like artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and food security, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Saturday. During a press conference with Ireland's head of government Micheal Martin, Carney said his visit was about "strengthening a relationship that is already flourishing." He said the countries have complementary strategies in artificial intelligence...
On June 12th, the American artificial intelligence company Anthropic —maker of the Claude AI assistant— issued an extraordinary statement, whose opening paragraph reads as follows: “The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including...
Canada and Australia cannot afford to be passive actors in the increasingly turbulent world of resource geopolitics.
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Secrecy surrounding cabinet documents is so absolute in Canada that critics look to theology and astrophysics for metaphors to describe it. Federal cabinet records in Canada are treated as “sacred artefacts to be shrouded in mystery for decades, hidden in a black hole beyond the contemplation of judges, commissioners, or citizens.”
In 2007, Roger Martin, then dean of the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, wrote a book called The Opposable Mind. It argued that the most successful leaders tend to be “integrative thinkers,” by which he meant they tackled problems holistically rather than breaking them down into component parts. Instead of seeking trade-offs, they are at ease with...
“Despite the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel which has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries…Lebanon moved forward with the ban on antipersonnel landmines,” said the Ottawa-based group Mines Action Canada in a statement, celebrating the new addition.
Access to nutritious, affordable food in Canada’s North is shaped by geography, infrastructure, policy, and the strength of local communities. In this episode of The Arctic Edge, host Hannah Thibedeau explores how communities, organizations, and businesses are working together to strengthen food systems across Canada’s North. While affordability and access remain ongoing challenges, this is also a story of leadership...
Lots of good talk on Good Talk this week, starting with Chantal and Bruce on Mark Carney's trip to Paris today and his talks with Emmanuel Macron. France is hosting the G7 next week, but for many, it's really a G6 with Donald Trump's America, no friend of the group. That and CUSMA and social media bans top the discussion...
The federal government has unveiled the newest iteration of its online harms bill — legislation that proposes to ban children under 16 from having social media accounts, as well as putting new regulations on social media platforms and AI chatbots. When should Canadians expect to see changes? Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller joins The House to explain.
As Donald Trump prepares for his big 80th birthday UFC Cage Fight on the lawn of the White House, the rest of the world waits pessimistically for its leaders to take on the global challenges of this frightening new era at the G7 next week in Evian, France. Louise, Jeremy and Peter discuss what's at stake, and how these same...
